Blog/July 2014/Jul 4th

July 4th (See this week's devar torah)

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Hi, again!

This was one of the most emotionally difficult weeks we can remember. I was already under stress from disputes with one of my clients, trying to shake off a summer cold, and tensely following the saga of the abducted boys along with all Israelis and Jews worldwide. Then we heard the bitter news of the boys’ corpses being found: shot, bound and partially buried in a field north of Ḥevron.

I’m not much given to crying; this week I cried and cried. My first bout was when I read “Fathers cry too”, quoting our CPA who is father of one of the boys. The second was when we heard the news that the evil, sub-human beasts had murdered the boys in cold blood. The latest was when we made a shivʿa call on our CPA’s family.

We attended the joint funeral of the three boys, along with over a hundred-thousand others. The funeral was absolutely packed, no place to sit and barely room to stand. The roads were completely jammed, there was a huge police presence, dozens of attendees needed medical attention for dehydration in the sweltering heat.

Yesterday among all the multitude of things we had to do, we also made that shivʿa call. The parents, Ophir and Bat-Galim are truly pillars of strength; I felt incredibly humbled by them. We went to comfort them, along with many others — including governmental figures. We went to comfort them; but how could I comfort someone when I myself found no comfort? It was all I could do to say the traditional words of comfort, and hug the father; then I wept on his shoulder. I probably shouldn’t have, but I just couldn’t hold myself back.

At the shivʿa there was a young rabbi who had been sent as an emissary from his synagogue in New York, to pay respects to the families. He said his congregation was so overwhelmed by the events that they felt they had to do something, so they sent him to convey their condolences. He told the story that because they booked the flight from one day to the next, he couldn’t get a kosher meal on the flight. The stewardess was trying to help him get something he could eat, and asked how long he would be in Israel. He told her he was going for just one day. She asked why, and when he told her she started to cry. She then announced to the whole plane that there was a shaliaḥ mitsva on board, and why; and many of the passengers also started to cry.

A fellow from Seattle came over to the rabbi and told him that he wanted to do something for the boys’ sake, and that he hadn’t put on a tallith since his bar-mitsva; he asked if he could put on the rabbi’s, to which the rabbi agreed. Then he asked him, if there were something he could do for the boys’ sake for the rest of his life, and the rabbi suggested tefillin. The guy agreed, and a ḥassid sitting next to them said that if the man would commit to putting on tefillin for the rest of his life, he would send him a pair which would be waiting for him on his return to the US.

It is said that there’s nothing worse in this world than burying your own child. There are those who try to explain what happened according to their understanding of things. Some wish to blame the victims, saying the boys had it coming to them for “being in the wrong place”. The truth is that when bad things happen, we do have to try to understand why and adjust our behavior.

It is inconceivable to me that the boys or their parents were being “given a message” from Above. I think that there was indeed a message to us as a nation, as the parents of Gil-Ad said. That is that we must be united. The past three weeks pushed the three families into the national spotlight, against their desires or inclinations, and in the most brutal fashion. These past weeks also saw an incredible unity in Israel, as Israelis from every walk of life and from every possible shade of the political spectrum set aside their differences and joined shoulder-to-shoulder to try to find the boys.

We were also given the message that despite the notions predominant in the West, there is such a thing as good and evil. When we make excuses for evil actions, we become enablers of and participants in that evil.

May God comfort the bereaved and all Israel. May He also unleash His vengeance on the murderers, their enablers and supporters wherever they may be, and on the entire culture of death which engenders such as they.

Switching to less fraught topics…

Sarah’s been working hard on making her movie, looking for actors, preparing the area etc. Apparently a well-known Israeli actor likes her script and may be interested in acting in it... we’ll update you as things progress.

After much consideration and deliberation, I decided to extract myself from working with the other company which appointed me CTO. The details are long and boring, but at the end of the day our goals do not align, and I was unwilling to commit to something I knew I could not fulfill. I still have to finish the part I’m working on, but now I’ve more time to devote to my own work.

And Esther and I celebrated our 28th year of marriage yesterday. And Daniela and Jeremy celebrated their second. And Dinah celebrated her one year aliyahversary.

Regardless of anything else going on, we must prepare for shabbat. Dinah is staying with us this week. We’ll be having:
homemade ḥalla, matza-ball soup, baked chicken with potatoes, rice, salatim, chickpea stew, and chocolate chip cookies.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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